What Lies Below
by ToothlessFuture
Summary: The five EVE probes are called to investigate a large complex hidden under the city. After two of the probes disappear, the troubles just begin. Can the robots survive from the dark secret that lies below...
1. Call of Duty

**A/N: Alright, my first WALL-E story, and I have a few notes about it:**

**First, this story will feature two characters from different show/movie, but I won't list this as a crossover for that reason, and also I don't think that many will check the crossovers section anyways.**

**To avoid confusion: whenever I say EVE in the story, I mean the probe one, others I call with numbers instead.  
>Also, dialoque written in italics means that the character speaks in the Axiom codec, which can't be understood by humans or WALL-E.<strong>

**Last but not least; I'm doing this story into a comic too, which will be available at my DeviantArt page. The story cover is already done: http: / / toothlessfuture. deviantart. com/gallery/#/d3edc0y (remove the spaces for the link to work).**

**The characters belong to Disney/Pixar.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Call of Duty<strong>

It was silent inside the truck that was home to an old trash-compactor robot WALL-E. For two years the truck had been home for a different kind of robot also: the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator probe one. Or just simply EVE.

Thanks to WALL-E's and EVE's actions, the humans aboard BnL starliner _Axiom_ were able to return to Earth after seven hundred years in space. For two years humans and robots alike had worked hard to clean the city where _Axiom_ landed (as nobody knew the original name of the city, it was simply referred as _the_ City) and its surroundings. Much had been achieved, but there was still much to do.

Few of the incinerator units had been repaired, and all the huge trash piles WALL-E had compacted over the seven hundred years had been burned down. Still, WALL-E had his daily job of compacting trash, along with his larger WALL-A brethren. And to be honest, that was a job that wasn't going to end anytime soon. EVE often admired WALL-E's persistence in his simple, seemingly never-ending work.

EVE on the other hand had a much different job. Her task, like her four sister probes, was to explore the empty buildings, note everything inside, create layout drawings and analyze the building's overall condition. It was important for the repair team to know all those things in order to decide if and how the structure was to be repaired or if it was better to tear it down. EVE found it to be somewhat similar to her old directive, and that was probably the reason why the probes were assigned to just that task.

But, besides of their important jobs and large parts in humanity's return to Earth, EVE and WALL-E were special in one more thing: they were the first robots ever to fall in love. It would have never happened without WALL-E's persistence in the subject, and finally EVE had understood after events that almost cost WALL-E's life (or more accurately, persona, but in the case of robots it's pretty much the same thing).

Now the robot couple lived in the old immobile WALL-E carrier truck that had been home for WALL-E for centuries. Even though work took most of their active time, they used every second possible to be together, to see different places around the city, and of course, to hold hands.

The insides of the truck were clustered with a wide range of different items from spoons to old game consoles to spare parts for WALL-E. They were items that WALL-E had found among the trash and picked up to add to his collection. And it definitely wasn't a small collection. Sometimes EVE thought that there were a little too many items stuffed to the relatively small truck, but she couldn't bring herself to make WALL-E to get rid of some stuff.

The internal clock of an egg-shaped, stunningly white object hit 6.00 AM. With a flash of light from the seams, the top of the 'egg' separated as a head, and similarly two arms, or maybe they should've been called fins, separated from the sides of the 'egg's' body. EVE hovered some 50 centimeters above the ground and made a robotic yawn.

EVE was a robot that was extremely simple in design, but very complex from the insides. In fact she was the most advanced robot there was. She moved by hovering and thus needed no legs. She had two arms that were connected with magnets to the body, so they weren't physically connected to the main torso. Similarly the head floated above the body, and both arms and head fit seamlessly to the body, forming a perfect eggshell form. Additionally, at the tip of both fin-like arms she had four magnetically connected fingers that she could separate when needed, but normally they were connected to the arm.

Only visual differences in her whiter-than-snow form were a round, black monitor in the front of her head and a number '1' in the chest area. In the monitor were two bright blue LED eyes, which currently looked pretty sleepy.

In the place of the number '1' there had been a green plant symbol, but as her directive was changed it was replaced with a number so the humans could tell her apart from her four identical sister units.

But that wasn't all, as hidden in EVE's right arm was powerful quasar-class ion cannon capable to blow away most obstacles. It wasn't just for show; the probes were licensed to use it too.

Also, she had a stasis chamber for holding vegetation samples, which took most of the inner space of her torso. It was pretty much redundant now, but still useful for carrying items, like tools, when necessary.

EVE looked around. It was dark, but she knew that the sun was already rising outside. It was going to be a special day, as she had yesterday received the word that captain McCrea wanted to meet her today morning at his office. It was probably something important, as the captain rarely sent such formal requests.

Like usual, WALL-E would wake from the sleep mode just an hour later, so EVE hovered silently to the door to not interrupt his sleep. Although both EVE and WALL-E spent the night in sleep mode, they did it for slightly different reasons. WALL-E, who was solar-powered, used the sleep mode to save energy until he could recharge again, whereas EVE used the sleep mode directly to recharge her batteries. In theory that meant that WALL-E could work round the clock if sunlight was provided, but EVE had to always spend some hours asleep. In practice there were no major differences what-so-ever.

The door opened, creaking like always, and EVE hovered out. She pushed the 'close' button and turned to admire the view. The City with all its skyscrapers bathed in the yellow light of early morning.

Some of the buildings of the City had been already renovated and were in use, but most were still empty, possibly hazardous, and waiting for to be inspected by the EVE probes.

EVE pulled few loops, enjoying the feeling of flight, before she headed towards the City. Soon a huge figure became visible from behind all the buildings. It was almost like an ocean cruiser, except that it was designed to sail the skies instead of seas. The _Axiom_, the 'crown jewel' of BnL's Starliner fleet had been grounded for two years now.

Although the humans were in process of settling the City, many still preferred to live in their cabins aboard the starship. Captain McCrea was one of them, although he claimed it was due to not finding a suitable office just yet. EVE didn't buy that.

As EVE closed in on the ramps leading up to _Axiom_, she saw a familiar shape just little ahead.

"_Three? Three!" _she called the white figure in Axiom codec.

It turned around and revealed to be identical to EVE aside from the number in chest, which was three instead of one. _"One, nice to see you",_ Three greeted.

The two EVE probes hovered together inside the _Axiom_.

"_So, you were called to meet Captain too?"_ EVE inquired.

"_Yes, apparently we are all… I'm pretty sure Two has messed up something again"_, Three stated dryly.

_Oh not this again,_ EVE shook her head. _"You shouldn't judge your… __**our**__ sister so easily."_

Three stopped to roll her blue LED eyes. _"Oh, you know what she's like. Every time she hovers inside a building disaster falls! I'm not judging anything, it's just the way she is, and you know that."_

EVE didn't reply. It was true that Two had caused a lot of unintentional trouble since her activation, but EVE believed she just needed time to adjust to the new job. Whereas others… well, they weren't so optimistic.

The probes hovered through the empty lido deck towards the elevator leading to the bridge. McCrea should be waiting for them there.

As the elevator's doors closed behind them, EVE used the time to calm down. If it the meeting really was about something Two had done, she needed a lot of patience handle the arguing probes. This time she'd make sure no one gets any burns caused by Four's cannon. As it wouldn't be hard enough to keep her out of Two's throat (figuratively speaking of course) without the fear of getting someone blasted.

The doors opened and revealed the bridge of _Axiom_. Smooth, black surfaces full of screens and controls were filling the space next to walls in the circle-shaped room. Large windows shoving a view to both lido deck and outside took place above the control panels. In the middle of the room was a tube-shaped elevator leading to captain's quarters that were just below the bridge.

In front of the front window was a wheel-shaped robot hanging from the ceiling. The autopilot of _Axiom_, AUTO, had been deactivated since the return to Earth. That was for the best of everyone, as AUTO was known to follow his directives a little too strictly, and nobody wanted to take any risks by activating him again. And that wouldn't be necessary unless they wanted to go back to space again, as the _Axiom_'s computer was perfectly capable of taking care of the ship's systems while grounded.

Next to AUTO was standing a… well, fat, man. Captain McCrea had been getting in a lot better shape than what he was at the time of landing, but it was still a long way to go to reach the 'ideal' size for a human. He stood there in his captain's outfit, hands behind his back, looking out to the dawn.

Behind the captain were hovering three familiar egg-shaped EVE probes, two of them giving glares to the one in the middle, who was dangling her head and looking nervous. _Great, here we go again…_, EVE thought as she and Three hovered towards the other probes.

McCrea turned around and EVE saluted him. "Good, One, Three, now when you're here we can start", the captain begun. "You must wonder why I called you all here. Well, it's about something that happened yesterday." That being said, EVE could have sworn that Two's monitor tinted towards red in shade. Four mumbled something in Axiom, giving even more deadly glare to Two.

Not getting distracted, the captain continued: "Due to probe two's actions, a twenty-floor building collapsed." Four turned her hands into fists and EVE just barely managed to get between her and Two.

Five, like usual, slowly backed off from the potential explosion, whereas Four's eyes were burning with rage. _"Out of my way One! Let me on that idiotic excuse for a probe!"_

"_I-I couldn't know that was a supporting pillar"_, Two tried to defend, her screen now definitely redder than usual.

Four tried to get past EVE with a quick spurt, but EVE took a firm grip from her and prevented it. _"Behave yourself in front of the captain, probe"_, EVE gave a stern look to Four's eyes. She wasn't in the mood for this at all.

Four struggled a bit before she settled down, but not without a few death-promising glances towards Two.

"Okay, listen, I'm not going to accuse anyone here", McCrea said. The poor captain had received a fair share of Four's temper, and he didn't want to get involved with the probes' fights. "The point is what happened afterwards. Some members of the repair crew came to examine the ruins, and found a hidden entrance underground."

"Oooooooooh", the probes exclaimed, save for Four who was now changing from outraged to annoyed.

"After a quick signal-probing it seems like there is a huge complex hidden underneath the City. Thanks to probe two, it was found."

"_That's ridiculous! Two fails big time and it's a good thing? How's that even logical?"_ Four protested.

"_Yeah, I agree"_, Three added.

"_No, you don't"_, EVE snapped. _"And you, shut up already!"_

"_So doing accidentally something good is a good thing? Well, I don't buy that"_, Four blunted.

"_But still you seem to think that doing accidentally something bad is a bad thing!"_ Two joined the arguing. EVE could almost see the daggers flying from eyes to eyes.

McCrea rolled his eyes. His idea didn't feel so good anymore, but he was gonna present it anyways. "Would you listen to me, please?" After he had gained the reluctant attention of the EVE probes again, he continued: "I want you to search trough the complex together, as a team. Probe one will act as the leader."

It was hard to decide which one was the most shocked; Two, Four or EVE herself. Millions of thoughts zipped around in EVE's circuits, most of them promising certain doom for them all. Ignoring Two and Four, who had just begun to call each other with names again, EVE turned to the captain: "Captain… not good idea."

The captain wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry. It was ridiculous how uncooperative these robots were. "One, I see you have your, eh, differences, but it is necessary for you all to go, or it'll take ages. It is important to know which kind of facility had had to be hidden."

EVE understood, but that didn't make it any easier.

"Here, take these communicators", McCrea said and handed five round, small black objects to EVE. "They can be attached to your 'wrist' by magnets, so you can coordinate better down there, and also report to me immediately to me if you find something important."

EVE handed everyone their communicators and then attached hers to her left hand.

"That's all. Two, you know the place, so lead the group there. There should be someone giving you further instructions. Keep in contact with the communicators, and good luck", the captain wished.

The probes headed for the elevator, and EVE was already considering of turning off her audio receivers. It sure was going to be a long day.

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><p><strong>I'm currently writing this pretty fast, but I'm not sure if I'll update before the first chapter is done in the comic form, which might take some time ;)<strong>

**Reviewing is greatly appreciated. -TF-**


	2. Land of Darkness

**A/N: Screw that what I said at the of the last chapter. It'd take ages to update if I'd wait for the comic to reach the same point as this story is in.**

**No special notes about this chapter, it was fun to make. Enjoy;)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Land of Darkness<strong>

"_Great. You made the captain look us like we were some idiots!"_

"_Yeaaaahhh. I was the one who went all crazy, sure."_

"_Want to repeat that?"_

"_Sure, I can say it even more clearly: It's your insane raging that does not have a good impact on our reputation!"_

Four looked like she was going to explode, but somehow she managed to hold herself back. _"I don't care what you say. All you do is make up excuses to cover up the fact you're unbelievably clumsy and incompetent! Even One knows that, even though she refuses to say it for some odd reason!"_

EVE stopped in her tracks. It had taken unusually long for Four to pull her in the 'conversation' she didn't want to take part in. She shook her head and turned to Four. _"Give Two a break, would you? We have work to do, so is it too much to ask you to concentrate in it instead of that nonsense!"_

Four wasn't impressed at all. _"Oh listen, great One has spoken with her voice of reason once again. Of course I must now repent and turn from my evil ways."_

Three chuckled and Five looked amused, and it was now EVE's turn to get seriously annoyed. _"Don't forget that I'm in charge here! You change your attitude or I get you transferred to other duties. I'm pretty sure that captain mentioned that he'd need more crew to clean the sewers."_

Four glared daggers at her, hands twitching in rage. It had leaded to this again. The dangerous frozen moment between EVE and Four, that would either end in Four's submission, or… well, explosion. So far Four hadn't dared to cross the line, but it was closer and closer each time. But luckily, not this time. _"Fine, whatever."_

"_Good. Now, Two, show the way, would you."_

"_Yeah, sure. Just follow me."_

Two hovered off to the City, and the others followed her (Four apparently unwillingly), but EVE took a few seconds to herself before she followed. And she was supposed to make these bots work together? Hah.

Fortunately, the rest of the journey was dull and uneventful, and they were able to reach their destination in no more than five minutes.

It was rather depressing sight; the ruins of the collapsed building had scattered over large area, and some of the nearest buildings had taken some damage to their lower floors. Amongst the chunks of concrete was a small cleared area with something yellow hovering there. So apparently this 'someone' that was supposed to give them further instructions was…

"_L-T!"_ Five greeted happily. And sure enough, it was the robot that was essentially a floating light bulb.

Four hurried past Five. _"You, bulbhead, have some instructions for us?_

"_There's no need to be rude"_, Two said and hovered between L-T and Four. _"Could you tell us all that we need to know?"_ she asked.

"_Sure. The entrance is under that metal plate"_, L-T said and flashed his light at a square-shaped steel plate, each side of which were about three meters. _"You can use the communicators to transfer data wirelessly to each other, if necessary. Good luck, I should be going now."_

"_What!"_ Four yelled.

"_You're joking, right?_ Three questioned.

"_No. I really have to go right now, sorry." _That being said, L-T flied off.

The probes stared after the yellow bot for as long as they could.

"_Riiiighhht, that was much"_, Three stated.

"_Okay, well, captain really told us everything necessary, now let's move the plate covering the entrance and move in"_, EVE instructed.

In a half of a minute the probes had moved the cover off and revealed a hole leading straight underground. There was nothing but darkness visible.

_Here we go…_ EVE descended down the elevator shaft, her sister following a little further behind. After going down some forty meters they reached the bottom, but there was a crashed elevator blocking the path.

"_Alright, we should try to remove it carefully to not –" _A metallic, distorted sound and a loud boom immediately after cut her in the middle of the sentence.

"_Sorry sis, but you're always so slow,"_ Four said and dived amidst the smoking ruins of the elevator.

Three followed her immediately, and so did Two. EVE was about to go too, but then she noticed Five was hesitating.

"_What is it, Five?"_ EVE asked.

"_Uhh, nothing. Or well, I don't like it there… it's so dark and creepy."_

EVE hovered to Five. _"It's ok Five. The place has been sealed for centuries, there's nothing that could harm you. Besides, we are all there, just use your communicator to call us if you need us."_

"_Thanks One, I guess it's fine… but I don't still like dark."_

"_Come on, let's catch up the others."_

EVE and Five flied trough the ruined elevator, and arrived into a huge hall. The others had stopped right there and were staring around in awe. Although it was so dark that humans couldn't have seen anything, the EVE probes' enhanced vision allowed them to make out some details of the room.

"…_Ten… eleven… twelve!"_ Three counted. _"Great. There's twelve hallways leading somewhere from here."_

"_Whoa"_, exclaimed Two.

"_This is hopeless… we should go back"_, Five tried.

"_Nonsense. We have work to do, and it shouldn't matter if it takes some time"_, Four snapped.

"_Four is right; we cannot give up just because the task looks enormous. Just think about WALL-E, has he given up regardless of over seven hundred years of cleaning?"_ EVE encouraged.

"_Oh not _that _again"_, Three complained and rolled her eyes.

EVE ignored the remark and continued: _"We should split up; everyone chooses one hallway and searches everything found along there. When done, report back here to take another hallway. That way this shouldn't take too long, depending on how complex this place is of course."_

"_B-But…"_ Five hesitated, _"what if I find something d-dangerous?"_

"_Didn't we go through this already?"_ EVE sighed. _"You have the communicator for th-" _*BOOM!* A shocking blue blast blinded EVE for a moment. When she recovered, she noticed a trail of smoke coming out of Four's cannon, and some rubble falling from the scorched ceiling. _"Four, what on Earth you think you are doing!"_

"_In the case you find something dangerous, THIS is what you do. Now excuse me, I have no time to hover here chatting."_ And so Four disappeared into the nearest hallway to the left.

"_That bot kills us all someday…"_ Two shook her head and flied off to the next hallway to the left.

Three floated to the next hallway, without saying a word.

"_You want the next one, or shall I take it?"_ EVE asked.

Five seemed horrified of the idea to be the last at the large room. _"N-no, I can take it."_

"_Alright, remember to keep in contact."_

"_I won't f-forget that."_

EVE watched as Five disappeared into the darkness, and then entered her own hallway.

There were doors on both side of the hall, and they all had to be checked. EVE entered the first room. It was square-shaped room, apparently some kind of office. EVE looked over everything in the room, saving everything in her visual memory. Then she began drawing the layout of the complex, by adding the room along the hallways. In the end, the full layout plan would be combined from the data collected by all five probes.

When done, she hovered out of the room and into the one at the opposite side. The room was similar to the previous one, and EVE repeated the process.

After ten minutes, she had gone through ten almost exactly similar rooms. EVE raised the communicator near his monitor. _"This is One, probes report in."_

"_Five here, nothing but offices here. And d-darkness…"_

"_Two reporting; I got some kind of laboratories here. Also, this place is really complex, there're doors leading to room with several doors to rooms with even more doors."_

"_Yeah, I've noticed that too. And it's Three here, just so you know."_

EVE waited for a while, but Four didn't report. _"Four? Come in, Four."_

Seconds went by, and EVE started getting nervous. Just as she was about to call again, Four finally answered: _"Yes, I'm here One, anything more pointless to ask?"_

"_You know you have to report Four! Otherwise I'd have to send someone searching for you in the case that something has happened."_

"_Bah, I can take care of myself. And to make you leave me alone: I'm at a lower level, there's a kind of a generator hall down here. Now let me do my job, would you?"_

EVE could do nothing else than shook her head in annoyance. It would be stupid to try scolding Four, so he had just to bear with her attitude.

Two offices later the hallway split in two, and not long after both ends split in two again. And then there were the stairways leading on a lower lever and on top of that some laboratories with several doors to other rooms, like Two had reported. EVE started to get dizzy; she had never seen a structure with so confusing layout. It was a good time to take a small break.

"_Anyone has anything to report?"_ EVE asked in the communicator.

After a short moment, Two responded: _"Yeah. If I wouldn't save everything in my memory, I'm not sure if I'd ever find my way back."_

"_I know the feeling…" _EVE stated. _"Anyone got anything else?"_

"_Actually, I think I've found something"_, Three announced. _"It's a long box, or something. I'm getting interesting readings from it. Five, could you come here; I'll send you the location data."_

"_Oh, s-sure! I-I just found some s-shut-down robots, I don't really want to be a-alone here any longer."_

"_Good, I'm waiting for you here. Now let's see what this does…"_

EVE waited for someone else to report, but as it remained silent, she concluded the conversation: _"Alright, thanks for the info. Five, report in when you have reached Three."_

"_Will do, One."_

"_One out."_

_And now back to work…_ EVE didn't remember when she had been as frustrated as she was now. Or wait, every time Four begun the arguing with Two… never mind that. But all the tracing her trail back to the place where she had been last time and then going to a new direction was getting really tedious. Whoever had designed the place, had either never heard of practicality, loved mazes or simply was mad.

Suddenly a panicking voice sound from the communicator: _"Oh my… please no!"_

EVE felt like her systems froze for a microsecond. _"Three? What is it Three?"_

"_NO!"_ Three apparently shouted at the top of her vocalizer. Then, soon after: _"*BOOM*"_

EVE's eyes widened. The sound of the ion cannon firing was unmistakable. _"What's happening there, Three!"_

"_*static*"_

"_Three!"_

"_*static*"_

"_Please, come in Three!"_

"_*static*"_

EVE fell leaning against the wall. She noticed that her hands were shaking. What on Earth was she supposed to do now?

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><p><strong>Oh noez... what will happen next? You will see that next week, until then, reviews are encouraged.<strong>

**-TF-**


	3. Panic Underground

**A/N: I'm really sorry for leaving you hanging there for so long, I just lost interest in writing (not the stories themselves, but writing them down). But now I'm back.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3: Panic Underground<strong>

EVE felt her motherboard lagging badly. She was in charge, she had the responsibility, and she couldn't freeze now. Besides she didn't even know what had happened… perhaps it was just a communication failure and something else… like collapsed ceiling. Yeah.

She managed to pull herself together. _"Five, I need you to go check what happened ASAP."_

"_I'm on my way, One. But I don't l-like this at a-all"_, Five replied.

"_It's alright Five. Two, I'd like you to go there too, in case that Three is stuck under collapsed ceiling or something and Five needs help to clear it."_

"_Copy that. I just need the location data; I don't want to get lost here"_, Two responded.

After a moment of silence Two talked again: _"Five, could you send the data…?"_

"_Oh, yes, sorry. It's just so c-creepy here."_

"_No problem sis. Okay, data received, I'm on my way."_

"_Good. Now, Five, I want report on Three's situation as soon as you get to her"_, EVE said.

"_Will d-do. Five o-out."_

Okay. For now she couldn't do anything more for Three. She should just continue her work of mapping the complex… but she was too nervous to do anything else than hover in circles in the room that she was currently in.

_Come on Five, report already. I must know. Come on. I must know. Report already… _The same thoughts repeated over and over in EVE's memory.

Every second was like an hour to her, until, finally, the communicator sprang to live: _"NOOOOOOOOEES!"_ It was Five.

EVE's head almost jumped out of the reach of the magnetic field holding it in place, so startled she was by the panicked scream.

"_Five!" _EVE almost yelled to the communicator. _"What is it, Five?"_

To her relief, this time it didn't fall silent. No, instead Five continued her screaming: _"Noooooo-ooooo-oooo-oo…!"_ and judging by the faint whirling noise, she was zooming trough the corridors.

"_No, Five, stay there, I'm coming!"_ Two exclaimed, but Five was in a state where she couldn't listen. _"Five, please! You'll get lost!"_

"_Two is right, try to calm down and tell us what happened"_, EVE tried.

"_Oh come on, can't you four do a simple job without freaking out and turning it into chaos?" _The speaker was Four. A rather irritated Four. _"I'll lose my mind if I have to listen to your messing any longer. One, help me stop Five. Two, go check what she saw. That is, if  
>it's not too hard for you.<em>

"_Oh no you –"_

"_SHUT IT would you! Four, that was totally unnecessary!"_ EVE tried to calm dawn before she'd say something she'd regret later. _"Alright, I'll go after Five with Four, and Two checks out what happened to Three, understood?"_

"_I'm almost there already, so yes"_, Two replied.

"_That doesn't mean you can't fail it in a way or another…"_

"_FOUR!"_

"_Yeah yeah."_

EVE flied out of the room she had been in for a while and headed towards the location where she thought Five had went. Not like she could really know, but by all logic Five would be heading out (she really hoped so; otherwise they'd have serious trouble finding Five).

She zoomed through the dark corridors, tracing her route back from the data collected in her memory.

Soon EVE arrived at the hall where the entrance was, but it was dead silent there. She looked at all the hallways leading to darkness and tried to make a quick decision. She could stay there waiting, or she could try going looking for Five.

Now, if Five would be rational, she would be heading outside meaning waiting would be a good idea. But as she didn't sound like she'd be in her senses at the moment, there was no guarantee that Five would ever find her way out of the underground maze. So EVE  
>should go after her.<p>

On the other hand, it was more than likely that she'd never find Five from there, and in the case that Five would be heading out she'd likely miss her and get lost herself.

Before she could make the decision, Four called her through the communicator: _"I found her, I'm right at her trail but the idiot won't stop!"_

"_You have to catch her before you're all lost!"_ EVE responded immediately.

"_Like that haven't crossed my mind yet… but she's going with full speed, I _can't_ catch her!"_

"_You could, umm…"_ She tried to make something up quickly. How to stop an EVE probe that's going with full speed?

"_Damn this…! You're stopping _now!_"_ Four yelled with several distorted booms following immediately after.

EVE heard some crashing noises and Five screaming. Four better not have shot her…!

"_Four, Five, come in!"_ EVE requested hastily.

"_Calm down sis, I got her"_, Four reported bluntly.

"_What is going on there?"_ Two joined the conversation.

"_Nothing for you to worry about, get back to investigating what happened to Three"_, Four snapped.

"…_Fine!"_ Two snapped back.

EVE couldn't do nothing but shake her head at the two ever-fighting sisters of her. _"How exactly did you stop her, Four?"_ She demanded.

From the moment of silence that occurred before Four answered she could tell that Four was rolling her eyes in annoyance. _"I collapsed the ceiling on her. Now, instead of asking pointless questions, you could come here to help me get her out of this pile of rubble."_

"_Uhhh, right… send me the-"_

"_Sending already, just come here, would you?"_

EVE swore that when this mess is over she'd NEVER work with Four anymore. Never. Still, she managed to not show that in her voice: _"Okay, coming ASAP. One out."_

Not surprising her at all, there was no 'Four out' to be heard.

She loaded the data sent by Four and quickly determined the best route. Luckily, they didn't seem to be too far away.

"_What are you!"_ Two's voice demanded suddenly.

Huh? _"What, could you repeat?_

No answer.

"_Two?"_

"_What do you want?"_ Two asked in such a strict voice that EVE was caught totally off guard.

"_Who are you to talk to One like that!"_ Four replied immediately. And _that_ didn't surprise EVE at all.

It was highly unusual for Two to talk like that, and EVE had to go back to her role as the leader: _"I want you to report your status now, probe Two."_

Two never replied. Instead, a moment later, she said with a faint voice: _"That's… that's right."_

EVE didn't quite understand that at all. Unless… _"Are you talking with someone?"_

"_Like anyone would want to talk to her"_, Four was quick to state.

"_Oh _shut up_! Two, answer to me!"_

The only answer she ever got was a beep from her communicator indicating that Two's device had just been disconnected...

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><p><strong>...aaaaand I did it again xD<strong>


	4. Abort Mission

**A/N: Hmm, nothing special to say here really. Chapter isn't too long, but making short chapters suit me better, even though I'd like to make them longer :/**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4: Abort Mission<strong>

EVE increased her speed greatly. There were something dangerous loose in these dark corridors. Something that the EVE probes were no match against. Perhaps they did have chances, but EVE didn't want to stay to find out. Besides, all she really knew was that she had lost connection to Two and Three.

But it wasn't just that, Five had seen something. EVE had to face the fact: she had lost two of her sisters, perhaps forever. As the leader, she had to make sure that she wouldn't lose more. Which meant it was time to abort mission.

"_Four, stay alert. There's something hostile out there. I'm at your position in exactly 37 seconds."_

"_Hmph, nothing can catch me by surprise"_, Four boasted, but she did sound tense.

EVE flied around a corner in a dead end. Following the datamap, she opened a door into a gloomy office room. Even though it was similar to all the offices that she had mapped herself, it was her creeps. The shadows caused by the weak light of her monitor danced in the corners and formed disturbing shapes. EVE had to hold back the urge to draw her weapon at them.

Swiftly she proceeded to the door at the opposite side of the room and entered another hallway. She turned right and arrived at a cross-junction. She did her best at ignoring the dark sideways trying to haunt her, and continued straight across. Now she'd just have to go through one more office room and she'd be united with Four and Five.

She was just about to open the door when something caught her attention. Something was lying on the floor just a few meters ahead. Curiosity took her over; she had to check what it was. EVE hovered slowly next to the unmoving object and scanned it.

It was some kind of cleaning bot, but clearly more primitive than the M-O units used onboard the _Axiom_. The bot's batteries were depleted apparently a long time ago, and so was all the data it had once contained. There were no directives, no behavior models, nothing. In other words, the cleaner was dead. EVE backed off a bit. She noted that there were some scratches on the smooth surface of the somewhat box-shaped robot. Near its head were two weird holes that certainly weren't supposed to be there. Something had  
>happened here a long time ago. Something was happening here <em>now<em>.

EVE jerked her head up as her audio receptors picked up something from behind the nearest corner. Or so she thought; she didn't stay to find out. She almost bursted through the door into the office room and similarly stormed out from the other side into the hallway where Four and Five were.

Except that instead of her sisters she was greeted by a bright blue projectile heading straight towards her.

EVE yelped and made a fast vertical spin. She was able to register the intense heat of the ionized plasma as it narrowly missed her and exploded against the wall some ten meters behind her.

Dust and smoke covered the air immediately, and EVE couldn't see anything. Still she knew she wasn't in danger anymore.

"_Damn it One, I could've killed you!"_ Four yelled on top of her vocalizer. _"What on earth were you thinking, storming out of the room like that? On top of everything, you are late!"_

EVE tried to wipe her monitor clean from the dust, but her hands weren't really ideal for that, she'd need some cloth. _"Sorry sis, I just – I just… it doesn't matter. Sorry."_

"_Hmph. Anyways, come to help me get Five free already so I can go after the fools."_

Some dust was still clouding her vision, but EVE could ignore that. She hovered to Four and examined the situation. The ceiling had collapsed in pretty badly; the rubble almost blocked the whole corridor. Five were visible among the rubble, but she was unresponsive. A large part of a steel beam was holding her in place pretty tightly.

"_She's in emergency shutdown –mode"_, Four explained. _"I can't lift the beam off alone and I couldn't blast the beam away without further damaging her."_

"_Alright, we'll lift the beam off together, but one thing first"_, EVE said and stared Four in the eyes. _"You're not going to look for Two or Three. I can't take the risk of losing more probes. I'm ordering to abort mission."_

Four's cyan eyes grew larger in a shock. _"What! You can't be serious! It's not too late – I can find them. And everyone who gets in my way might as well be damned!"_

"_Four." _EVE paused to make sure she got the probe's full attention._ "There's something that kills robots down here. I've seen the bodies. We _can't_ stay here any longer. We _must_ leave now."_

Four hovered back and forth in frustration. _"So that's it, you're just giving a death sentence to two of our sisters?"_

"_No"_, EVE staggered a bit. _"I'm trying to save the three of us. Please, Four…"_

Four consider this for some time. Finally she turned to EVE and said with narrowed eyes: _"Very well… but don't expect me to take orders from you after this."_

EVE nodded slowly. She'd have to accept this for now.

With some effort the two probes managed to move the metallic beam enough so they could get Five free. She was reverted to the egg form and small red light was blinking in her chest. Aside from small scratches there was no visible damage.

"_We should activate her or getting off gets tricky"_, EVE declared.

Four just stared silently.

"_Okay…" _EVE muttered, _"I hope she doesn't have internal damage, or this may backfire."_

She opened a panel in Five's shell, just behind the number '5', and pressed the reboot button. With a faint hum Five's hands and head separated from the torso. Two blue eyes appeared in the monitor, and everything seemed to be fine. For two seconds.

Five blinked a few times, then her eyes went wide, she screamed and tried to fly off. EVE had to quickly tackle her and pin her down. Five struggled to get free and EVE had to use her strength seriously to keep her from escaping.

"_Ah, come on, calm down. Ugh. Four, little help, please."_

Four grabbed Five's hands firmly and held them at her sides. EVE used the opportunity to calm down the panicking probe.

"_Five. Five! Look at me. It's me, One."_

Slowly she caught Five's attention, and a little later Five stopped struggling.

"_It's okay Five. You're safe with us."_

"_One…"_ she breathed.

"_Yes"_, EVE smiled.

"_I'm letting you free now, don't try to fly away. I can't be bothered to shoot the ceiling down on you again"_, Four declared.

"_I w-won't"_, Five promised.

Four released Five.

"_Alright, Five, I need to hear what you saw, but not now. We'll gotta get out first. Take my hand so you won't get lost"_, EVE instructed.

"_O-okay."_ Five took EVE's hand, and EVE checked the route out once more.

"_Good. Let's get going; Four, cover our backs."_

"_Fine."_

With that said, the three probes left the dusty corridor behind.

EVE guided Five through the maze that their route was, and Five followed them with her blaster drawn out.

They managed to get to the huge hall that was their starting point without any incident, aside from Five getting nervous a few times and mumbling 'no'.

The probes went into the elevator shaft and saw the daylight shining up there. After the horrors of the darkness they had finally reached the light. They were safe.

But it wasn't over yet.

"_We should place the metal plate back to seal the complex. Then we must report to the Captain."_ EVE said with serious tone.

It would be the most discomforting report she had ever given.

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><p><strong>It's not over, it has just begun *insert evil laugh here* :P<strong>


End file.
